


Dreams And Demons

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Alternate Universe, Original Character - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2000-07-19
Updated: 2000-07-19
Packaged: 2019-05-15 02:45:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14782163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: Roni goes back to California to visit her old friends





	1. Dreams And Demons

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

Roni begins to fall asleep, after a very hard day of doing nothing, but has a little trouble actually getting to sleep. She keeps tossing and turning, finally she gets to sleep at 3:00 a.m., three hours after she first laid down. Now, she drifts off to never never land, where she has a very strange dream. In the dream, she is sleeping in her bed, when a group of men come in and drag her away, at first pulling in different directions, but then they synchronize their moves, and carry her sleeping body to a vehicle waiting outside. After getting splashed in the face with cold water, Roni finally wakes up in a sitting position, in what appears to be a church. Yes, it is a church, and she sees a man there. This man is Jesus. Roni sees him come to life, jumping down from the cross on the wall, leaving an empty cross hanging. Roni sees him walking towards her, thorn crown, raggedy clothes, the five wounds, and all. He goes over to Roni, and puts his hand on her head, as if blessing her. Roni sees his lips moving, but hears no sounds coming from his mouth, and wonders what he is doing. Finally, he takes her hand, as he helps her to stand up. Once standing face to face, eye to eye, he tells her, "You are free. You are free, go and know that you are free. I died for you. I was resurrected for you. I am here now for you, but you are free, you no longer need me. Go, be free." With that, the man turns around and walks back to the alter. Once there, he jumps up to the recently empty cross, and takes his place back up there. Roni then says, "but I'll never be free."

Suddenly, Roni is awakened by a very annoying telephone ringing. She looks at her clock to see what time it is, the red numbers 5:45 scream at her, and all she wants is to scream back at them. After the fourth ring, she finally picks the phone up. She managed to choke out the words, "Hello, who are you, and what do you want?"

"It's your dad. And the plane leaves in an hour, we need to leave here to get to the plane shortly," retorted Jed.

Roni appears to be very confused, possibly from the lack of sleep, or perhaps from the dream, as she responds "Where are we going?"

"California, remember. When you found out we were going to California, you really wanted to come, because it's close enough that you can see go see all of your friends that you left behind."

"Oh yeah. That trip, I almost forgot about it."

"From the sounds of it, you did forget."

"I suppose that is possible. So, question, am I packed already?"

"You must be in real bad shape if you don't remember packing yesterday," Jed replied. "How could you possibly forget how fussy Abbey was being?" In a very mocking tone, Jed mimics Abbey's words from the previous day, "Make sure you pack shorts and pants, even though you used to live there, that doesn't mean you know what the weather is going to be like when we get there. And you should pack a jacket too, just incase...No, not like that, this is how you fold something like this..."

"Okay, okay. I remember now," Roni pleaded.

"Good, I was beginning to worry about you for a minute there. Good to hear you're alright. Now, if you would be so kind as to get out of bed, and get ready for the trip, then meet me down at my office."

"Okay, I'm up, and I'll be there in twenty minutes or less."

"Okay. I'm starting my stop watch, you have exactly twenty minutes, then I get to send Abbey after you," Jed rebutted, as he hung the phone up.

Roni sluggishly sits up in bed; the only thing on her mind was her dream. She remembered every detail of it, and was bewildered as to its meaning. Slowly getting back to the present, she remembered she would have to deal with the First Lady if she wasn't in the Oval Office in twenty minutes, so she got up and stretched a little. Then she headed towards her bathroom. As she stood in the shower, with the water pouring down on her, she kept thinking back to her dream. She just couldn't seem to get it out of her head. "What could it mean? I'm free from what? Why would I no longer need Jesus in my life? Was it really Jesus that was in my dream? Maybe it was.....No, it had to have been Jesus," she murmured to herself as she shut the water off and pulled a towel around her. "I've got to think about something else, if I don't, I'll go crazy. That is, if I'm not already."

*************************************************

"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4..." Jed began counting down the final seconds Roni had to show up, as he smiled at Abbey.

"3, 2, 1. I'm here, and I have three seconds to spare, does that count for anything?" Roni asked as she opened the door to the Oval Office.

Abbey answered, "All it means is that I don't get to have any fun, everyone is ready and here on time," as she pouted her way over to Roni.

"So what, no prize or anything? I told you twenty minutes, and I didn't even use them all," said Roni in a joking manner.

"Three seconds, you had three seconds left," Jed reminded Roni, "besides, you get to go to California in Air Force One, I'd think that's prize enough. And if it isn't there is always the consolation prize of being my daughter."

"But I'm tired of my consolation prize, I want a different one, a new one, a good one," Roni wittingly replied.

"Wise *ss," was all that Jed could manage to choke out for a comeback.

As Jed puts his arm around Roni, and begins to walk towards the door to go find out when they are leaving, Charlie enters the room, with very readable I-really-don't-want-to-go-on-another-plane-trip-with -you look on his face. "Sir, the motorcade is ready to take us to the airport," Charlie said.

"Did I detect something in that 'us'?" Jed asks, as he holds the door open and ushers his daughter and his wife out of his office, then shuts the door behind him.

"Probably," whispered Charlie.

"Just for that, you're gonna be my plane buddy. When we are on the plane, wherever I go, you go. Wherever you go, I go, and I get to teach you some really neat stuff too," Jed begun, a little hurt at first, but ended sarcastically, yet seriously.

"Can't wait, Mr. President, oops, was that out loud?" snickered Charlie.

"And for that, you are also my plane buddy on the way back," said Jed, as they reached the door where the motorcade was patiently waiting outside.

A confused Roni asks, "So I've been here for a little over two months now, and I still don't understand why everyone is afraid of you and your trivia. What's up with that?"

Jed begins to speak up, but Abbey beats him to answering the question, "You don't want to now, Roni. As your mom, it's my job to save you from having to go through the bad experiences of life, and this is one of them. So trust me, you don't want to know. You don't want a piece of it."

"I'm not that bad, like I told CJ a few months ago, I merely help pass the time, and I am entertaining. What's so wrong with that?" Jed said defensively while stepping into the limo.

"I suppose that wouldn't be so bad, if what you had to say was actually interesting, but it's not, so that's what's wrong with that, sweetheart," Abbey said sarcastically as the motorcade started moving.

"So now I'm regretting ever having asked, but I do think I'm beginning to understand why everyone is so not in to your trivia," Roni said.

The rest of the trip to the airport was filled with playfully insulting discussions, as each member was just having fun and trying to not let Jed begin his trivia marathon. They all got loaded up on Air Force One, and was ready to take off. Jed, made the call to the pilots with a big 'ole grin on his face, and then they all went and sat down for the take off. Abbey managed to cut-off Jed anytime he began to ask trivia questions, which made the flight pleasant for the staff members, something Charlie was extremely grateful for. Ten hours later, the senior staff and the first family landed down in California, where they had free time until the next morning, in which they had to start their day off at 6:00 am.

  

  


	2. Dreams And Demons 2

*************************************************

Once Roni was situated in her room, she decided to make a phone call.

"Hey lady, is pipsqueak there?" Roni said to the female who answered the phone.

The lady in turn shouted, "Piper, phone, it's some homeless spaz child."

"Talk about a blast from the past. But, I'm sorry to say, we no longer donate to the homeless spaz children of the world, now that they've made it to the White House and all," said a male voice on the other end of the telephone.

"Well, seeing how I'm not in the White House right now, but rather a short thirty minute drive from where you are...." Roni began, but was cut off.

"What? Where are you? And why are you there?" responded the male voice.

"I stowed away on Air Force One, it was coming to California."

"That's right, I forgot, the President is supposed to come here for a few days."

"Yeah. So now I'm thinking you need to be the one nick-named spaz child, except I really like calling you pipsqueak."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I spazzed out on you. It just took me a very very long time to get you to go to your real family, and I don't want to see you ruin a good thing."

"I've always appreciated a good thing when it comes my way, and I never give myself the chance to mess with it. You're the one that goes around ruining good things."

"Oh yeah, I forgot, so sue me," said the male voice.

"Naw, I'd rather just come visit you, what do you say? I have lots of free time, and I'm no more than a thirty minute drive," stated Roni, as Jed and Abbey knocked on the open door. Upon drawing Roni's attention, they entered the room.

"Hey pipsqueak, I gotta go now, but I'll be there before the hours up, so change out of those rags you're in. Later. " Roni said, as she hung the phone up. Now turning towards her parents, "What's up?"

"We were just curious what you were going to do in your free time, cause we were planning on going to a restaurant, and wondered if you'd like to come," answered Abbey.

"Sorry, I just made plans with someone."

"With pipsqueak? Do we know her?" asked Jed.

"Apparently you don't know pipsqueak, cause her is a him."

"Would this be the same him that you are best friends with, and the same him that made you come find us?" questioned Abbey.

"Yup, that'd be pipsqueak. Of course his real name Is Piper Reed," responded Roni, "I told him I was in town, and was planning on hanging with him, if you don't mind."

"I don't mind, but I would like to meet him, and I know your mother probably would like to as well," Jed said, looking over to Abbey who shook her head.

"You'll have to meet his wife too."

"He's married?" Jed asked.

"Yeah, his wife's name is Kat, Katherine, I call her Kat lady. And it'll have to wait till later, or perhaps tomorrow, or something."

"Why?" Jed and Abbey both asked.

"Because you two are going to dinner now, and I am going to his house now. So you can't meet him now, cause you'll be late for your reservations. You did make reservations right? Besides, he'd probably like some kind of warning, that he'd be meeting the otuses."

"The otuses?" Jed and Abbey repeated, both very confused.

"Oh, that's right, you two don't share pipsqueak and my, uh, vocabulary. Otuses, stands for POTUS and FLOTUS, see both of those have otus in common, therefore otuses. And don't worry, when we made that term up, you weren't an otus yet dad," Roni answered the still very puzzled couple standing in front of her.

"Okay, well, we have reservations, and you told your friend that you were going to meet him, so I suggest we all better get going. "

"Yeah, pipsqueak probably has his head starring out the window, waiting for me. You two have a cool time," Roni said turning to her parents, as she locked her door and started walking towards the exit, as they walked towards their room, to get ready for their dinner.


	3. Dreams And Demons 3

*************************************************

A little later, we see a black Chevy Suburban pull up to a small gray house. As soon as her agents finally secure the premise, she gets the go ahead to get out, and goes to the side door of the house and enters, without knocking. "Hello, anyone home? Pipsqueak, you here? You know you shouldn't leave your door unlocked. You could have homeless White House bums come into your house." Roni said as she walked through the kitchen and into the living room, sat down, and turned the TV on, still waiting to hear from someone else in the house.

Piper yelled out from a bedroom in the back of the house, "Guess I should fire Kat for not locking the door, huh?"

"You can't fire your wife, and if you did, I'd have to sick my secret service agents on you," explained Roni, who finding nothing to watch on TV, turned it off, and now turned the radio on, as if she owned the place.

Kat walks into the living room, saying "Plus I'd probably quit before I was fired."

"Boy have I missed this way too much. This, right here, you, me, him, us, here," Roni said with a sound of tears in her voice.

"I missed it too, probably more than you, cause while your off having fun in D.C., I have to put up with this thing right here," said Piper, coming into the living room.

"Hey Kat lady, I need your help with something," Roni informed.

"What is it?" asked Kat.

"I had this dream the last night, and it really got to me. You're a psychologist, and you are a great dream interpreter, having taken several courses at college in this specific subject, so you think you could take a crack at mine?" pleaded Roni.

After telling her dream to her friend, Kat asked, "That's gonna take me some time to interpret, how long are you here in California for?"

"A few days, 4 to be exact."

"Okay, tell you what, I'll have it interpreted by the end of your trip. Wouldn't want you to go too long without a meaning."

"Cool. So are we going to do anything tonight, or are we just going to sit here all night and talk? Personally, I'd much rather go do something, cause you two bore the crap out of me," Roni said extremely playfully.

"Oh, and like the feeling isn't mutual," Piper said equally playful.

"Okay you two, don't make me separate you, cause I will if I have to."

"Actually, my secret service detail would probably take care of that for me. The only difference is that they wouldn't hurt me in the process."

"Are you saying you think I, me of all people, that I would hurt you Veronica?"

"No. Anyway, come on, let us go hit the town, like in the old days."

"Now what kind of picture would that paint in the morning news?" mussed Piper. "'First daughter Roni Bartlet gets caught bladeing through the 24 hour Wal-Mart, while her two friends run through the store attempting to restore all order she disrupts.'"

"First, that only happened like once," Roni started, but upon looking at Piper's look, said, "okay, okay, it happened twice. But I didn't really knock that much stuff down, it was only when people were in my way and I had to maneuver around them."

"Okay," Kat begun, "what about this for the headlines, 'First daughter, Veronica Bartlet gets caught red handed adding her prints to a local mural downtown.'"

"My hands were blue, I used blue paint, cause blue is my favorite color. And the mural belongs on pipsqueak's office building, and he gave me permission to do it, and once he explained this to the police, they let me go."

"Perhaps if you didn't decide to add your prints to the building at 3:00 am, the police wouldn't have hastily acted the way they did," exclaimed Kat.

"Boy, we had some really good times, didn't we?" asked Roni.

"You bet we did. But I'm not sorry to see them go, if it means your safety," Piper said very seriously.

"Hey, what time does Raging Waters close? We could go hang out there," suggested Roni, as she realized the conversation was headed down a path she didn't want to go.

"I think they close whenever it gets dark around here," Kat fired back.

"Just what we need, tomorrow's headlines to read. Piper stated in a news like tone, 'Yesterday at Raging Waters, the first daughter, Roni Bartlet, decided to return to the scene of her crime. Just months ago, she broke into the room at Raging Waters, where the announcements are made, and started her career, in broadcasting, as she decided to take over the announcements, because the current person's voice was very high-pitched and annoying.'"

"You have to admit, that guy's voice was really high, and very irritating. And it's not like they didn't offer me a job there, doing just that."

"How about we just go to that dance club, you never did anything there, of course there is always a first time," Kat said.

"Cool with me," Piper said.

"I suppose I can go, but I never have any fun there, which would probably explain why I haven't done anything crazy."

"Okay, for your sake, lets just go to a movie." Piper said, trying to please his friend, "but I swear Roni, if we end up getting kicked out of the theatre, because you are throwing your popcorn at the people in front of us, I am going to get really upset. You already have us reduced to just two theatres in the surrounding area."

"I'm not allowed to do stuff like that anymore, CJ, the press secretary would kill me, and I don't want to get you guys in any more trouble with the theatres," Roni said, as the trio moved out the side door. Roni then rounded up her secret service detail, and they were on their way to the theatre.

*************************************************

The trio that entered the theatre only an hour ago comes out of it, two with a very upset, yet very amused look on their face, and Roni, she was laughing so hard, she could hardly walk straight.

"I'm really sorry guys, but I just could not resist. I mean, there was that couple, sitting right in front of us, making out. I just had to throw the popcorn at them.

"Well we can cross that movie theatre off our list of theatre's that we're not banned from," said Piper.

"I'm really sorry guys, I didn't mean to."

"You know, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if the only thing you did was throw popcorn, but you created quite a ruckus."

"I really am sorry."

"Sorry is not good enough, it's not going to be that easy to escape from our wrath," Kat said.

"I really am sorry. If it is any consolation, I guess we can go to that dance club now."

"No, cause we can't have you create more nightmares for us, and dream-come trues for the press, I think not," Piper said. "Why don't we just go back to the house, we can watch a video there, but we are not giving you any popcorn."

  


	4. Dreams And Demons 4

*************************************************

Margaret, very enthused that she finally gets to go to California, wants to go shopping, to make up for the time when she didn't get to go to California. She was successful in recruiting Donna, and Ginger in coming with her. At the last minute, CJ decided that she would go too. "Now we have to shop fast, the mall closes at 10:00 p.m.," CJ said, looking at her watch, "and it's already 8:00."

"So where should we go? You guys two have already been here," Margaret questioned Donna and CJ.

Donna was the first to respond, "We didn't come to this part of the state, we went to LA, so we don't know what stores are best around here."

CJ responded with, "I already said the mall, there you have lots of stores, and can spend all the money you don't have."

"I thought no one was to mention that word around you ever again, for as long as you live."

"So I forgot Ginger, maybe I'm just starting to get over what happened."

"You said that would never happen," Donna reminded CJ.

"Okay, I'm really starting to remember what started my hatred for all things Mall like, can we change the subject?"

"I want to get some special souvenirs and such, things made by local people, things that help describe the area's attitude. I wonder if there is a market downtown that we can go to, like the last place I got to go to," exclaimed Margaret, happy to change the subject back to shopping.

"Maybe we should call Roni, she's from this area," a very wise Ginger suggested.

"But we don't know where she is, and she probably has her ringer off on her phone again, just like with the word-we-aren't-going-to-use -again thing." CJ said, remembering the last PR fiasco that Roni was involved in, with little amusement.

Donna, in defense of Roni, said, "You know, she already apologized, and we said we'd forgive her."

"I lied. If she ever does that to me again," CJ cuts herself off as she hears her pager go off. Looking at the message, she read it aloud, so as to inform her friends, "Roni, movie theatre, press mess, come to hotel quick, Leo. I'm gonna kill her, I am going to kill her. This better be a practical joke on Leo's part, cause if it's not, I'm going to kill her. We just barely got to the car, and I already have to go back. In fact, we've only been in this state for two hours. I'm gonna kill her."

"You think Leo is going to need me for anything?" Margaret asks.

"He didn't page you, so he doesn't need you, let's go to the mall," Ginger says, as the three secretaries step into a waiting taxi. CJ turns around back to the hotel.

*************************************************

Josh, looking around his hotel room, with absolutely nothing to do, decides to go bug Sam for a while. Upon reaching Sam's open hotel room door, he knocks on the door, asking "Sam, you here?"

Sam steps out of the opened bathroom door, yeah, just fixing my hair, I hate when the front twirls up and sticks out, it always reminds me of Elvis. Come on in."

"Ok, too much info, anyway, I'm really bored, wanna go do something? We can go downstairs, to the game room, and play pool."

"Sounds like fun, I was just headed your way to ask if you wanted to do something, so I'm game for whatever."

"Make sure to grab some change, cause the pool tables cost like .75 cents a game." Josh said, and quickly asked, "you think we should find Toby and invite him?"

"Yeah, it's not like he's gonna say yes, cause spending time with us, it's not on his top five list." Sam said, as they walked down to Toby's room and knocked on the door with the 'please do not disturb' sign on the door.

Toby, for reasons unknown to him, got up and answered the door. Before looking to see who it was, he started, "What the hell do you want, and why can't you read?" Then, he looked up and saw who it was. "Well now I know why you can't read, but what the hell do you want?

"We came to ask if you wanted to come play pool with us."

"Why would I want to do something like that?"

"Cause it'd be fun."

"Maybe for you Josh, but that's not in my list of top five things I want to do most."

"See, Josh, what'd I tell you. I even got the number right."

"Toby, if you don't come, then Sam will be right about you, and will boast that he knows you too well, we can't have that happen, so you are coming."

"I'll do anything if it means Sam is wrong. So who's gonna play the first game?

"You and I can."

"Okay, Josh, but you're in for a run for your money. We are placing a friendly wager on the game, right?"

"Well, we hadn't thought of that, but that's what you're for. Just remember that we are White House Employees, and therefore have no money." Sam said, as his pager started to go off the same time Josh's and Toby's went off.

"Okay, who did what? We've been here two hours, and we are already getting paged, on our personal time too. Someone must have done something big." Toby started off, as he looked at his pager, 'Roni, movie theatre, press mess, come to hotel quick, Leo.''

"Roni, uh oh, CJ's gonna be mad. Remember that time at the mall, with Zoey and the ice?" Sam said, as he disappeared into space for a few seconds remembering what had happened.

"You know, that probably wouldn't have been so bad, had the ice not melted so quickly, and all the people on the other end of Roni had not slipped and fallen down the way they did. We better go see Leo."

Josh says, as CJ storms up behind them.

"I'm gonna kill her. You three want to help me kill her, cause I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna kill her," CJ said in a very upset tone.

"There will be no killing of anyone," Jed said as he and Abbey quietly walked up behind Toby, Josh, Sam, and CJ. "So who did what to get in trouble this time? Was it Donna? Or maybe Margaret?"

"It was neither Donna, nor Margaret, sir. It was your daughter."

"What did Roni do this time, she didn't go to the mall here, did she?"

"No sir," Toby started, as he waved his pager around, "it has something to do with a movie theatre, now why can't we kill your daughter? She has caused nothing but a PR nightmare from hell, with all of her stunts, and she's not even in college yet, so we can't chalk it up to sorority pranks."

"I bet she was throwing popcorn at people, that sounds right up her alley," Josh said, trying to calm down CJ, with a failed attempt.

"Why does she keep doing this to me, I thought I was her favorite."

"She's 17 years old CJ, she's having fun being a teen, didn't you ever do stuff like that back then?" Sam started to stick up for an absent Roni.

"I never caused as much trouble as she does, I can't think of anyone who has ever caused this much trouble, except for maybe Hitler."

"CJ," the once silent first lady began, "are you comparing my daughter to Hitler?"

"I.....uh.....no.....yes....um.....I didn't mean to if I did."

"So I wasn't paged, so me and my wife are going to go into our room and we are going to continue what was started on our almost moon-lit drive. So, if Leo decides he wants to page me, tell him I already know what happened, have no power over the situation, trust you guys will figure out what to do, and give you permission to yell at, not kill, my daughter. Later." Jed and Abbey headed into their hotel room, while the three senior staff members go to Leo's door and knock.

"Enter," a muffled reply comes from Leo, behind the door that is shut, but is still open because the deadbolt lock was locked before shutting the door.

"Can I kill her Leo?" asked CJ as she entered the room.

"I'm not sure the President would like that very much, but I don't care if you do."

"We just talked to the President," Sam informed Leo. "He said to say that if you decide you need him, he knows what happened, he has no power over the situation, trusts we will figure out what to do, and he gave us permission to yell at her, but said we were not allowed to kill her."

"How does he know what happened?" a ruffled Leo asked.

"We told him," Josh said.

"Leo, did you call her? Is she on her way here?" CJ asked.

"Yes, I called her, but I have no clue if she is on her way here, she wouldn't answer her phone, probably has the volume down."


	5. Dreams And Demons 5

*************************************************

Credit's are rolling on the TV at Kat and Piper's place, Roni is laying on the couch, with a tear in her eye, Piper is sitting in a chair, with Kat on the ground right in front of him, Kat with quite a few tears in her eyes. "That was a good movie," admitted Piper.

"I can't believe you haven't seen it yet. It's been out for the longest time," Roni said.

"Sorry, but I didn't think I would like it."

"Well then, I'm glad I made you rent it."

"I'm glad you made him rent it too. Thanks Roni."

"No problem. That's just my the way I am, I find out my best friends haven't seen the movie Armageddon, and I remember how much I loved it, and I just have to make you watch it. You know I should probably be getting back, it's already 11:00. My detail is probably really mad at me."

Piper and Kat stand up at the same time that Roni does, they both give her a hug, said their good bye's and parted ways. Roni goes outside, tells her agents she is ready to leave, and they all pile back into the suburban once again.

*************************************************

They finally reach the hotel at 11:35, where Roni attempts to go straight to her room. Upon entering the lobby of the hotel, she finds Sam waiting for her. "Hi Roni, so nice of you to drop by."

"What's up, Sam?

"Uh, lets see, what could possibly be up, gee, I don't know. But you think it might have something to do with your behavior at a movie theatre?"

"How'd you find out about that?"

"Josh, Toby, and I were on our way to play pool, when Leo paged us. It seems Leo has a friend, who somehow found out about this. His friend called him to let him know, give him a heads up."

"Does CJ know yet?"

"Yes she does, we all do."

"She's gonna kill me, isn't she?" Roni said as they walked into the elevator.

"It's possible that that was mentioned."

"So why were you waiting for me in the lobby?"

"Oh, maybe because a certain someone doesn't believe in having the volume on, on her cell phone and nobody could call her. And perhaps lots of people are upset with this said girl. And those people wanted to know exactly when said girl got in. So they set up a watch detail, in which they each person took a turn sitting in the lobby, waiting for said girl to return, so they could deal with all the trouble said girl caused." Sam finally finished by the time the doors of the elevator opened up.

As they walked down the hall, Roni walking a lot slower than Sam, Roni whispered "I was just having fun."

Sam opened the door to Leo's room, and said "she's back." He then looked down the hall, as he caught Roni quickly running towards her room. "Not so fast Roni, if we have to deal with this, so do you. You get back here, now."

"Geez, why is everyone so uptight?"

"And just think, I'm the only one you've talked to so far."

Roni walked in to Leo's room, and CJ said, "I really am going to kill you if you do this again. I can't do it this time, because the President said I can't, but if you do this, or anything like this again, I'm gonna kill you."

"I can see this is gonna be a long night, one that I'm not gonna walk away from."

"SIT!!!" Toby screamed very angrily.

"Yes sir. You know, if this is how you guys react to me throwing popcorn at a couple making out in a theatre right in front of me, just wait till you hear all the other things I've done." Roni said as she sat down.

"You shouldn't have said that," Josh pointed out to Roni as he looked at CJ.

"No. No. It's alright. Really, it is. If it may end up coming up in the future, I'm gonna need to know about it."

"You really shouldn't have done that Roni, now you're gonna pay. When CJ smells blood in the water, she's worse than a shark, just ask Sam."

After a very long night of getting yelled at for her past, and current, mischievous behavior, Roni was finally excused around 2:00 am, because the rest of them realized they had to be up in four hours. Thrilled she was able to get away from there, she quickly went to her room, before anyone else could yell at her.

*************************************************

Having no problems getting to sleep this night, Roni was out after two minutes of hitting her pillow. Then it started again. She had another dream, only, it wasn't another one, it was a continuation of the one she had the night before. It started off, with her saying "but I'll never be free, I can't be free, I doesn't happen that easy, I have to spend the rest of my life paying for it first." Just then, a ghostly figure appears. Veronica Bartlet, you are free. It does happen that easy. I am God, I say you are free, you are free. I set you free, because I love you. You are my child, my creation. I created you with a purpose. That purpose will never be dealt with if you continue on your current path. You need to realize that you are free, that is why I sent my son to Earth to die, it was for you, so you can move on, so you don't have to pay for the rest of your life. Go, be free. With that, Roni's dream changed, it went from a continuation of her last dream, to a dream about Toby, CJ, and Leo killing her for her popcorn incident. Yet another time, Roni is wakes up because of a ringing phone. After the third ring, she wakes up, and searches for a clock. Finally finding one, she screams at it, "NO, IT CAN'T ONLY BE 6:15!!!" She then picks up the phone, at the fifth ring, "What do you want, whoever you are, and may I just say, if it isn't a good reason to wake me up, then you are in as much trouble as I am."

"Hello to you to sweetheart, I had to wake up early too, because your father had to wake up early, so I thought it would be fun if we could get something to eat. What do you say?"

"I say I'm not hungry enough and I need to go back to sleep until I am hungry enough."

"Nope, cause I already woke you, so now you won't be able to go back to sleep, so you can come have breakfast with me."

"Maybe you would have problems going back to sleep, but I have never been inflicted with that before."

"Well I am having that problem right now, and everyone we came with is busy at work, so I'm here all alone, just me and my secret service guys outside my door, and I was thinking, who could I make eat with me, and you are the first one I thought of."

"Since I know you aren't going to drop this, fine, I'll come eat with you, but then I'm going back to sleep."

"No, cause then you are coming with me to talk with a local People Against Rape program."

"I am?"

"Yes, you are."

"I didn't know I was doing this. Since when am I doing this?"

"Since you got in trouble last night, and this would be some good PR for you, and might work to get the spotlight off of you."

"So I guess there's just the added benefit that this solves CJ's problem, and that I'm from here, so it would be a more relaxed meeting?"

"Well this was actually suggested to me on the phone right before I called you. It seems that the staff stayed up a little longer than you did, and they came up with this idea. And yes, it will help that this is the area you are from."

"Shouldn't this be awkward for me, having been almost raped not so long ago?"

"That's what I thought, but then I remembered it didn't really seem to bother you that much when it first happened."

"Yes, well there is a reason for that, one that I'm not going to talk about. So I guess I have to get up now that my entire day seems to have been planned for me, and I'm kinda curious what I will be doing."

"Okay, honey, see you soon."


	6. Dreams And Demons 6

*************************************************

After having spent the entire day on the schedule that was made up for her, in which she had an escort from one of her parents, a member of the senior staff, or one of three secretaries that were able to come, she finally had some free time all to herself. Roni looked at the clock, 9:30 p.m. She then decided to call her friends, Kat and Piper. "Hey, what's up?"

"Just watching the news. Nice apology to the theatre by the way."

"Kat, I really don't want to talk about that. I've suffered enough for one day. I called to tell you that I had another dream. Hey, the otuses want to meet the two of you by the way."

"Where did that come from?"

"I don't know, I just remembered it. So what do you say?"

"When?"

"Whenever."

"I would feel awkward."

"Now just imagine how I felt when I went to him, and told him I was his child."

"Okay, if you can do it, we can. We'd love to meet the otuses. How about tomorrow?

"Sure, what time?"

"What time does he finish his thing?"

"Well he has a long break between 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. But I've recently discovered that tomorrow I will be going with my mom to another group thing, this time it's the Mothers Against Drunk Driving."

"I was going to join that group, then I remembered that I'm not a mother."

"I don't think they really care if you're a mother."

"But that's the name of the group. Anyway, what time does the M.A.D.D. thing end?"

"Oh, uh, 4:00."

"And what time will you be getting back to the hotel?"

"It's at the hotel, in the ball room, or one of them. So we'll be back at four, cause we will never have left."

"Okay, well pipsqueak and I don't work tomorrow, so any time works for us. How about 4:20?"

"Why 4:20? Why not 4:30, or 4:15?"

"I like weird times."

"Not to mention that you are weird. Hey, take me aside tomorrow, and remind me to tell you about me dream last night. I'd tell you know, but I have to go. I'm being summoned, by one of the senior staff members, who probably wants to yell at me."

  


	7. Dreams And Demons 7

*************************************************

The meeting with M.A.D.D. went really good. Because of all of the good PR that Roni has been creating, the media has left her alone, proving that they aren't all that bad. It is 4:15, and Roni arrives at her parents' room, and knocks on the door. Abbey opens it, nervously, expecting to see their two visitors, but instead, only Roni. Abbey looks in the hallway, then asks, "where are your friends?"

"They haven't gotten here yet. They still have five minutes."

"Okay." Abbey said, as Roni's cell phone rang.

Roni, answering her phone said, "Yeah?...sure...whatever....on my way...bye."

"What was that about?"

"Kat and Piper just got here, I told them I'd go meet them downstairs, so they don't have any problems with the secret service, so I'll be back soon." Roni reported, as she turned around, went downstairs, and met her friends. Minutes later, there is another knock at Jed and Abbey's door, by Roni again. Again, Abbey answers it.

"Hello, you must be Katherine and Piper Reed. It's such a pleasure to meet you," Abbey said while she shook their hands, and led them in the room.

"It is a real honor to meet you ma'am, sir." Piper said.

Kat, getting in the conversation, said, "Yes, it really is an honor, and a pleasure to meet you both.

"Hey, I think you guys forgot about me, no one said hi to me," pouted Roni.

"That's cause you're old news," Jed said, toying with Roni.

"Ah, in that case, you won't mind if I go play pool with Josh and Sam."

"Yes, we would mind, no, you are not leaving, and hello," Abbey said, in an attempt to please, and to get rid of all tension in the room.

"Have a seat folks," Jed offered.

"Thank you sir."

"So, tell us, how did the three of you meet?" Jed wondered out loud.

"Well sir, I sort of literally ran into her on the street one day," answered Piper.

"Ouch, that must have hurt," said Abbey.

"The worst part of the pain came later, when I got to know him," Roni jokingly replied.

"But it was worse for us you see, cause we then had this love-sick puppy on our hands and we didn't know how to deal with her," Kat continued with this.

"Love-sick puppy? I thought I was some homeless spaz child."

"Yes, well, you were also a love-sick puppy."

"I'm thinking the sick part of that is correct, but sick cause I didn't have the good sense not to run as far as humanly possible when I meet you."

"Okay, so how did you bump into each other?" Abbey asked, again trying to keep peace.

"Well, ma'am," Kat started. "Piper and I were taking a moonlit walk on a beach, and we sort of weren't paying much attention to where we were walking. Next thing we know, this thing here runs into us. She claims she thought she was being chased by, what was it again? Oh yeah, by demons."

"Demons?" Jed asked.

"Demons," Roni replied.

"So what kind of demons where they?" Jed asked.

"I'd rather not go into that right now. Talking about those demons will only be a bad thing, and I've had enough bad in my life for two days."

*************************************************

The conversation moved on to such subjects as careers, futures, children, and of course politics. One topic Roni made clear she wanted avoided, was what the Reed's said and did to cause her to come search out the Jed and Abbey, and she managed to get her way too. When the chat began to die down, Kat reminded Roni that she wanted to talk to her, so they went off to Roni's room. When they were away, Jed corned Piper, and drilled him. Abbey just seemed to disappear.

"So what's up with the demons? Why doesn't Roni want us to know what you did to get her to find us? And what did you do to make her come find us?"

"They have to deal with her and her fath...her and Keith, and their past."

"All of them?"

"Yes."

"About the physical abuse and all?"

"There was a lot more to it than that. Where as I would love to tell you, sir, I really would like to remain Roni's friend, she is a good one."

"But you can tell me, I promise I won't tell anyone else."

"I remember hearing in the news a month or so ago that someone tried to rape Roni."

"Yeah, the son of the President of France."

"And how did you take to this news, sir?"

"Not very good, why?"

"Multiply that by a thousand, no, by a million, then you would maybe have an inkling of an understanding of how you would react if you found why she didn't want to come and find you and your wife, before I got to her."

*************************************************

Reaching Roni's room, Roni informed her friend about the dream she had the other night. Kat now had an interpretation for her.

"I think what your dream is telling you, is that you've found your place. You found where you belong. You are free from your past life. But you don't agree with this, you think that the way you were raised is really going to have a huge influence on the rest of your life, and that you will never be free. What you don't understand is that you already have overcome all of these obstacles, and your upbringing has not weighed in on your current life at all. You are free from it. You have a good thing going, and you shouldn't ruin it by dwelling on the past. Yes, you've made some mistakes along the way, so what, big deal. Who hasn't? It's done with. I think the reason that you were told all of this by Jesus and then by God, is because you are a very religious person, and probably wouldn't believe it if it came from anyone else. I know that Piper and I have spent some time trying to convince you of this, but our attempts have always failed. That is my interpretation. That is what I think the reality of the dreams are. It may not be a good reality, it may not be a favored one, but it is my interpretation."

THE END


End file.
